Hating the Patriots & Home Field Advantage

As a die hard Patriots fan, I am sure of one thing: people love to hate the Patriots. The Patriots even won the distinction of most hated team in America. Well Patriots fans if that doesn’t give you the warm and fuzzies I don’t know what will.

I’ve given up (for the most part) on fighting with people who hate the Patriots, mostly because their arguments are pretty dang absurd and illogical. Brady is a whiner and a cry baby. The Patriots are cheaters (this is a stupid reference to spygate, which you know). I hate Brady’s face (I’ve actually heard this one). Belichick is a jerk. All of the former are opinions for the most part. I’m not going into the spygate thing mostly because I’m so tired of talking about it. I will say this though – there are tons of teams that have broken the rules and people don’t bring it up every 10 seconds as a way to invalidate a teams’ success.

With the Patriots’ loss to Green Bay on Sunday, it was glaringly apparent just how much people hate the Patriots. I’ve known this for a while, but the loss brought it to the forefront again. The Patriots haven’t lost since their September 29th game against the KC Chiefs. That’s a pretty stellar stat. I guess people have to get their jollies where they can though. I’ve come to accept that I’m a fan of the most hated team in America and I can’t silence the haters, but I can let the Patriots’ success do that for me.

The NFL season is winding down. The loss on Sunday to Green Bay put the Patriots in a position where they have to win every game the rest of the season. The Pats are in a race with Denver to claim 1st seed in the AFC. 1st seed means a first round bye and home field advantage. Home field advantage would be so sweet to have in the playoffs. The Patriots are one of the most successful teams in the league when at home. It would almost guarantee a trip to Arizona on February 1st. The Pats have one thing going for them in the race to secure 1st seed and that is – we beat the Broncos earlier this year. If it comes down to both teams having the same record at the end of the season, that win will be the tiebreaker. Both teams have to have the same record though.

There are four games left in the season, three of those games are divisional games, which you know are always tough. The Broncos have two divisional games left, one of which is the 1-11 Raiders. We can all hope though that Broncos lose at lease one more game this season and that the Patriots don’t play like they did in Lambeau and win every game the rest of the season.

The next four weeks will be exciting and anxiety inducing for Patriots fans in the best way. Go Patriots!

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Pro Talk Writer: Erica

Erica Lynn Anderson is an author and contributor at gridirongirl.org. As well as an online radio and web cast cohost. In addition to writing the Universtiy of Washington, Pro Talk, and Fantasy Football columns, she also records a weekly video series titled "Are You Kidding Me?!?". She's passionate about football and believes it is perfection in motion. Getting to share her passion with the world is Erica's dream come true. She's been known to hold up lines and talk to random strangers about football. With 10 years of football experience, Erica is dedicated to helping every woman learn to love the game.